Are Electronic Cigarettes Dangerous?

In the United States of America, there has recently been a gigantic uproar and controversy over the use of Propylene Glycol as an additive in electronic cigarettes. This has prompted a massive and unprecedented attempt on the part of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to try to place a permanent ban on the importation, distribution, sale, and use of e-cigarettes in the country. So far, these attempts have failed, but no one knows if they may be successful in the future. Many onlookers allege that this FDA crackdown was the result of prompting from lobbyists employed by big tobacco companies in the United States. No one can say for sure just yet.

The United States Food and Drug Administration recently performed official scientific and medical research upon several leading brands of electronic cigarettes, which have become very popular in the country. They then released the results of these tests to the public. In the officially published FDA report, it was noted that there had been at least one known harmful element which had been discovered in the cartridge unit of one of the models of electronic cigarettes which had been tested.

This substance, known as Propylene Glycol, was alleged by the FDA to have tested positive for tiny, trace, amounts of Diethylene Glycol (DEG), which is very harmful to humans should they accidentally ingest a large enough amount of it. The cartridge in question had contained water vapor, flavoring, and nicotine. The DEG content in these e-cigarettes which were tested by the FDA was found in only one cartridge, which was a brand of electronic cigarettes which contained “tobacco” flavoring.

What was “overlooked” by the FDA in their report, and what caused the controversy, was the plain and simple (and indisputable) fact that DEG has long been a known and verified ingredient in the manufacture of traditional, tobacco filled cigarettes. E-cigarettes only incorporate this ingredient when making an attempt to create and sale a brand of electronic cigarettes which “replicates”, as close as is possible, the traditional flavor of a tobacco filled, “regular”, cigarette!

Since this one flavor of electronic cigarette had used ingredients which were extracted from a conventionally grown tobacco leaf, it is only reasonable to assume that it might also contain a number of ingredients which with such leaves of tobacco are traditionally treated and preserved. So, many in the United States viewed these findings by the FDA as subject to suspicion and hypocrisy. Could “protectionism” and pressure from the lobbyists of big tobacco companies have been the masterminds behind all this legal hassle?

It should be pointed out, immediately, that no other brands of e cigarette contained this DEG element, for the simple reason that they were not attempting to replicate anywhere else the classic flavor of traditional tobacco. So, no other electronic cigarettes carry this DEG, and no manufacturers of e-cigarettes have since announced that they were planning to. Consequently, the importation, distribution, and sale of e-cigarettes in the United States remains perfectly legal and legitimate – at least for now!